Does the Terran need a new air unit or a better one?

You mostly talked about air to ground. If the terran air does need to be improved then it would be air to air. Because they aren't really strong there. The bc costs a lot, and takes a while to build. So it really isn't the air to air unit that can help out. The viking's air form is used mainly for moving it faster, and to help with raiding. It seems that the air is mainly for backing up the ground units. That won't help in a air to air battle. The terran won't last that long. They would have to depend on numbers like the zerg for air to air. That's the only place it's lacking to me.

 

Nah, the terrans have nicely balance air-support to me
light ships -> viking for anti-air, and the banshee for antiground support
add in a bc for even more
but a new unit that is light and can attack both air and gruound would also be nice....but i dont think that's happeninh. maybe in an expansion or sumthin

 

"You mostly talked about air to ground. If the terran air does need to be improved then it would be air to air. Because they aren't really strong there. The bc costs a lot, and takes a while to build. So it really isn't the air to air unit that can help out. The viking's air form is used mainly for moving it faster, and to help with raiding. It seems that the air is mainly for backing up the ground units. That won't help in a air to air battle. The terran won't last that long. They would have to depend on numbers like the zerg for air to air. That's the only place it's lacking to me."

Vikings do more damage than Wraiths in their AtA mode; that mode isn't just to help with moving or raiding. They aren't weaker than Wraiths, they're a lot stronger against mutalisks (double the damage Wraiths did) and capital ships (battlecruisers, carriers, motherships) -- x1.5 damage compared to Wraiths before taking armor into account.

 

Well what I'm saying is the if you had some vikings, they would do fine against the zerg. But if the protoss comes in with several void rays. The vikings would be toast. If you get the same amount of both protoss air units, and terran vikings. The protoss would just kill the vikings. Even if it was the protoss's new fighter. They would be toast. That's why I see it's lacking a bit. The vikings would need bc support to make sure they win against protoss air forces. But zerg would have to have at least 2 times the amount of air units than the vikings, in order to destroy them.

 

Void rays are, cost for cost, much better suited to destroying ships like battlecruisers than ships like vikings. The terran player will have the advantage.

Also note that focus fire isn't nearly as effective for a void ray as it is for a viking. Six vikings can destroy a void ray in one or two volleys; six void rays focus firing a viking will simply wound it.

BC support wouldn't help against the void rays (except for good use of Yamato Cannon) as the BCs would become the biggest target.

StarCraft I and II both try to make you use a mixed force of units. Even if void rays turn out to be stronger than I'm thinking they are, a protoss force made up of pure void rays could easily be taken out by another unit type, like thors. But I'm really doubting that; if so, Blizzard will have to fix that during beta.

 

K I'm not just saying void rays. I'm also saying their phoenix, and other air units. The vikings wouldn't be able to take much. The bcs would be able to match back up. But the terran aren't really air geared like the protoss. The protoss have a huge advantage in air. Oh and I wasn't talking about ground units, just air. Hopefully blizzard fixed this problem.

 

The terrans have one less air-to-air unit as one such role has been taken by the thor. Is that such a bad thing?

I did mention above that predators used to hold the thor's anti-air role.

In terms of roles:

1) Thor (Predator) = Phoenix
2) Viking = Void ray
3) Battlecruiser = Carrier

1 > 2 > 3 > 1 (so 1s beat 2s which beat 3s which beat 1s...)

Note that vikings can avoid phoenixes by grounding themselves. (Phoenixes can grab them back up with anti-gravity.) Note that all three of the terran units have an AtG role. The phoenix is somewhat lacking in that area (although it can still indirectly affect ground units).

 

Well it wouldn't hurt to have a terran air unit to support the viking earlier on. But I guess the terran aren't as bad as I thought against protoss air. But what about the mothership? Plus the Thor can't be transported, and getting to where the protoss phoenix are. Well it will take it some time. But by then the units would be gone. But over coarse blizzard is balancing, and probably have alrighty fixed this problem.

 

"But what about the mothership?"

Shoot it down like it was a battlecruiser. Throw vikings at it. It can't use Time Bomb anymore (boo hiss!) so it can't protect itself, while it's Vortex ability can only attack one unit at a time. Even if it can quickly destroy a viking, you can always afford to lose a viking.

Because of Vortex, you might not want to use battlecruiser Yamato Cannons against it (as it can probably kill a single BC with that ability).

"Plus the Thor can't be transported, and getting to where the protoss phoenix are. Well it will take it some time."

That is one of the biggest issues with the thor, it's not mobile enough. (It's also expensive and high tier for something that's supposed to take on mutalisks I guess, although I could be overestimating its tier.)

 

BC with Missile Barrage totally owns clumped mutas! Think of a BC but 600 hp and does 8*8 damage per deafault and with Barrage you get a poweredup version of Valks attack (OK it cost energy)!. Thor has also a very long range vs air and after what I have read it is not as slow as it used to be.

 

But it still can't be transported.

 

Here's what I think...

- Make the viking in air-mode more predator-like so that it is effective versus light air fighters rather then capital ships.
- Make the viking in ground-mode have an anti-air attack similar to the goliaths.
- Make the Thor's GtA attack do massive damage to just a single target rather then an AoE attack, and return it to the juggernaut meat shield it formally was ... also make its GtG attack do massive damage to single ground targets, and it should be built by an SCV again.
- Get rid of the missile barrage for the battle cruiser, and bring back the plasma torpedos

 

I agree will all that. But what is the missile barrage? But the viking can transform into air mode to attack enemies in the air that are attacking them, so they don't need a air attack. But that would make since. Ya the viking really needs to be better versus light fighters. But I guess that's the thor's spot. Will I guess it is the marine's spot too. Maybe have the viking able to fire their machine guns in the air too.

 

Here's how you upgrade the Terran air. It's very simple. BRING BACK MY WRAITHS!

 

Wraiths, I guess have been replaced by Vikings. The Vikings aren't that bad in Red Alert 3. Well the viking version of the unit. Red Alert 3 is just like SC2 in a lot of ways. But Wraiths didn't really help the terran much in air to air battles as much as the Valerye did. It was a powerful air to air unit. But the hp on it was terrible. It didn't last that long against enemy units. But if you really want the Wraith back. Just make your own version of SC2 in the editor. I believe the old SC1 units were all going to be in the editor. I think blizzard told us that. I don't remember where I read it. It could have been wiki.

 

The wiki says some of the units will be back. (Allegedly Blizzard said all, but I can't find the quote; I think people took the word "some" and wishful thinking made it the word "all".)

And the Wraith has been confirmed to be in StarCraft II as a campaign unit.

Personally I didn't like Wraiths. They were too defensive (due to weak AtG attacks) and their primary use was killing capital ships that came much later in the game.

 

I must agree, but the wraiths didn't even work well with that. The Valkyrie was the best anti air unit. You only need 5 to take down most units. Unless a ton of carriers attack you, then like 10, or 15 for sure.

 

the banshee attacks ground units and the flying viking attacks air units. What about the nighthawk hunter ? It is a support unit. And the battlecruiser attacks both of them.

The Protoss have more air units than the Terran and even the Zerg. You should also ask "does the zerg need a new air unit ?" cause the Zerg have just the mutalisk and the corruptor

 

Yes, I know all that. But the zerg don't just have those 2 units. They have units like the Overlord, and it's upgrade, and the Mutalisk's upgrade. I am comparing the terran units, to the protoss units.

 

Also the swarm guardian, the zerg answer to the banshee. Can't forget that!